Buck Showalter faces flak, but Mets' troubles not his fault alone
Mets manager Buck Showalter looks on from the dugout before an MLB game against the Yankees at Citi Field on June 14. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
To put it bluntly, the Mets are playing like the sort of team that fires its manager.
Sloppy defense, mental errors, puzzling bullpen usage. An underachieving $375 million roster that hasn’t won a series in a month and is on pace for 73 wins. Frequently doing just enough to lose, a trait the Mets have executed to perfection, and did again in Monday’s 2-1 loss to the Brewers at Citi Field.
But is this dumpster fire entirely Buck Showalter’s fault?
Of course not. Say what you want about Showalter’s head-scratching relief roulette in Sunday’s Philly fiasco, but the Mets followed that up with Justin Verlander sounding exhausted after five scoreless innings (100 pitches) and Drew Smith — fresh off his sticky-stuff suspension — immediately teeing up the go-ahead homer in the sixth to No. 9 hitter Joey Wiemer.
Verlander, just as a reminder, is a three-time Cy Young Award winner and future Hall of Famer, yet couldn’t shoulder more than five innings at a time when both his manager and bullpen are under siege. The $43 million co-ace talked about the short rest between innings — the Mets had only three hits — and the tiring element of the pitch clock nearly three months into the season.
Sure, Verlander didn’t lose Monday’s game, but the 40-year-old hasn’t done a heck of a lot to help the Mets win, and that’s another reason why they dropped to eight games under .500 (35-43) and 8 1⁄2 games out of the third wild-card spot (we’re past the point of counting the NL East deficit — which, by the way, reached 16 games).
“I don’t think anybody saw this coming,” Verlander said. “It’s disappointing for everybody in this room, I know it’s disappointing for the fans. Just keep trying, you know?”
Every game feels like a must-win now, and the Mets couldn’t beat a Milwaukee team that went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position Monday and threw the ball around like a circus act. That’s hard to do, but the Mets are reaching Twilight Zone levels in their ineptitude.
How does one explain why the Mets are 5-16 in their last 21 games, among the very worst in the sport during that span? Showalter is the one at the podium taking the bullets twice a day, but the basic truth is the Mets have so many problems — from the front office winding down through the clubhouse — that it’s impossible to pin them all on the guy in the manager’s chair.
When Showalter was asked Monday afternoon what it would take to jump-start the Mets — we’ll settle for maybe winning more than they lose in a calendar month — he declined to focus on any one department.
“All of the above,” Showalter said. “Everybody wants to identify one thing. If this button is proper, then everything’s OK. I wish it was that simple.”
As for blame, take your pick. A bullpen with three reliable arms? A highly paid, injury-prone, erratic rotation? You could go right down the lineup, too, giving a pass to only Pete Alonso and, yes, the resurgent Tommy Pham.
Then head upstairs to where general manager Billy Eppler’s failure to add bullpen depth led to Sunday’s meltdown, orchestrated by Showalter. Somehow, this is the same chain-of-command that piloted a 101-win season a year ago.
If Showalter is covering for an undermanned roster and head-scratching personnel decisions — David Peterson over Joey Lucchesi for Tuesday’s start being an example — it then becomes Eppler’s duty to explain his handiwork. But with Monday’s series opener against the Brewers a natural stage, Eppler never made an appearance, letting Showalter dangle in the fallout from Sunday’s debacle.
That’s not exactly showing a unified front, and the more heat publicly directed at Showalter, the more his job status comes into question.
Showalter is almost midway through Season Two of his three-year, $11 million deal, so he’s squarely in the danger zone when it comes to managerial tenures. And we know one thing for sure: Owner Steve Cohen doesn’t sweat the money.
Before Monday’s game, the Mets had a 16.3% chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs, and for anyone who’s watched this team on a regular basis, that number seems charitable. And it’s not as if the Mets have been crippled by injuries, other than maybe the nefarious trickle-down from Edwin Diaz’s freakish WBC mishap. But you have to wonder if the weight of unfulfilled expectations is getting heavier by the day, as that mental fatigue — especially in Flushing — can work to sabotage a season, too.
The Mets are staring at an uphill slope that currently feels like Everest, and we’ve yet to see them display the tenacity required for such a climb.
“What drove the expectations?” Showalter said Monday afternoon. “The way we played last year? The amount of money?”
All of that, really. But now everyone is feeling duped, and the Mets are well past the point of trying to explain their way out of this mess. Either pull it together this next month or Citi Field is going to be just another chop shop on Seaver Way.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
